Yekini Jimoh writes on the intrigues playing out in Kogi State with less than six weeks to the governorship poll in the state.
OF the three off-season governorship elections coming up on November 11, a lot of Nigerians are focusing attention on the poll slated for Kogi State. Law enforcement agencies, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other main stakeholders are also at their wits’ end over issues relating to the happenings that will climax to the holding of the election. Due to the trajectory of elections in the Confluence State, the forthcoming election is generating more than a passing interest. Several stakeholders have expressed fears of probable violence, threats to security greeting the election. The electoral body itself has also raised its fears. At a one-day workshop organised for media executives in Owerri, INEC National Commissioner and member Information and Voter Education Committee, Mallam Mohammed Kudu Haruna, described the trend ahead of the forthcoming election in Kogi and Imo was not only “unacceptable, unnecessary and worrisome,” but also capable of scaring potential voters. He declared: “We have gone so far with our preparedness for the off-cycle elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa States. The commission is truly worried about the growing level of insecurity and violence, in Kogi and Imo States. Campaigns in Kogi State, has been violent and this is most unfortunate. Our political gladiators and indeed, all citizens, must work towards ensuring free, fair and credible elections. It stands to reason that if this situation is allowed to continue, there is the likelihood that people will be afraid to come out to vote, on the Election Day.”
There are five leading contenders for the office to be vacated by Governor Yahaya Bello whose two terms of four years each expires next year. The candidates are: Alhaji Usman Ahmed Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC); Muritala Yakubu Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP); Senator Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Honourable Leke Abejide of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Usman Jibrin of the Accord Party (AP).
Kogi East seems to be the major battle ground in the ongoing intrigues, supremacy contest and manoeuverings. The reason is due to the fact that the senatorial district has the largest number of local government areas, highest voting population in the state and number of candidates. Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Kogi State, Dr Gabriel Haley Longpet, raised the issue of political intolerance, pleading with the players and actors to play by the rules as the election fast approaches. Speaking when he played host to the executives of a non-governmental organization in the state, Kogi Peace and Security Network (KOPSEN), who came to seek collaboration and peaceful election in November, Longpet said: “This is the battle of the ballots, not the battle of the guns. We should try to disabuse the minds of the people on what Kogi has been known for when it comes to election. Any political party, however small, has a right to campaign for vote anywhere as long as they notify relevant security agencies.”
The battle for votes has been intense, thus far. There have been incidences of attack on campaign trains especially involving the APC and the SDP. Suffice it to note that the SDP candidate, Muri Ajaka, defected from APC after the party’s governorship primary due to irreconcilable differences. He is a former deputy National Publicity Secretary of the ruling party.
While the APC and SDP have dominated the media space for attacks on campaign trains, the PDP and its candidate, Dino Melaye appears not distracted by the ongoing intrigues that tend to deemphasise the yearnings in of the people. He is optimistic of winning the election based on what the people want and need. Melaye said: “PDP is going to win the election in Kogi State because we have never had it so bad in the history of Kogi State. Our people were impoverished, salaries have not been paid, pensions have not been paid, gratuity has not been paid, the health sector is non-existent; In fact, all the general hospitals in the state are mere consulting clinics. Education has gone moribund, this is what the PDP is coming to ameliorate and palliate. My charge to Kogi State is that they should not be intimidated by the APC, by the threat, violence. The humiliation by the APC should not deter them from exercising their democratic rights. I want to assure you that we will protect our people.”
Melaye said he would win the election to conquer the fears of the people over the present state of affairs in the state. He said in Egume, Dekina local government during a meeting with leaders of PDP in the Kogi East senatorial district that the time had come to give the state a new lease of life. He was received by a ormer Minister of Police Affairs, Barrister Humphrey Abba, former Kogi PDP Chairman, John Odawn and a former commissioner, Mrs Ruth Eke Iyaji among other prominent leaders of Kogi East extraction during the visit. The event was held at the Egume residence of Chief Odawn and was witnessed by the party’s National Campaign Council’s committee chairman on contact and mobilization, Professor Jerry Gana; North Central Zonal chairman, Dakas Shawn, among others.
Melaye commended Chief Odawn for his long years of service as Chairman of Kogi PDP and for keeping the Party together despite the challenges it has experienced over time. He described the meeting as a “home-coming” and assured the leaders and stakeholders who thronged the venue of inclusion and consensus building under his watch, saying it is his desire to ensure that the party lives up to its name as a promoter of people’s democracy.
He cited his records of advocacy for the rights of workers and the people of Kogi State as the undeniable credential that he brought into the November 11 election. He noted that his campaign is weaved around partnering with Kogites to rescue the state from the yoke of underdevelopment. Dino pledged to be a servant leader and promoter of good governance, urging Kogites to bring about the desired change by voting for the PDP without fear at the November 11, 2023 Gubernatorial election. Professor Jerry Gana, who led the National Contact and Mobilisation Committee on the visit, commended Chief Odawn and many founding members for their steadfast support for the Party. He urged the people to put the shortcomings of the past aside and work for a new paradigm that the emergence of Senator Dino Melaye and his running mate, Hon Habibat Mohammed Deen represent. Representatives of the three federal constituencies in Kogi East, who spoke at the meeting, assured of their total commitment to the election of Senator Dino Melaye and Hon Habibat Mohammed Deen. They called for vigilance during the election to avoid the manipulations of election processes and results as witnessed in the elections of the recent past.
It would be recalled that the Federal High Court in Abuja had ordered the Director General of the Department of State Service and the Inspector General of Police to protect the governorship candidate of the ADC, Leke Abejide from any arrest or detention. The also barred them from inviting, arresting, detaining or threatening the life and property of the candidate pending the hearing and determination of a suit instituted by the ADC candidate. He had approached the court through his counsel, Sammie Somiari {SAN] in the ex parte motion marked FHC/ABJ/1248/2023 or enforcement of his fundamental rights to life, the dignity of person, personal liberty, fair hearing, peaceful assembly and association. He complained that some forces had become jittery since he emerged as ADC candidate. The judge therefore fixed a date for the substantive suit. The judge accordingly ruled thast. “anorder is hereby made restraining the respondents, their agents, servants and anybody acting through or under them from arresting, inviting, detaining or threatening the applicant’s life and properties pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.”
Meanwhile, several supporters of APC and SDP were injured when the convoy of Governor Yahaya Bello ran into a campaign of the SDP in Koton-Karfi. In the same Koton-Karfi, there was another clash involving APC and SDP supporters with a female APC supporter losing her life. This was apart from people getting injured and vehicles damaged. The latest clash in Koton-Karfi has fuelled a sense of battle among supporters of the two camps. It has also had in its trail accusations and counter-accusations, trading of blames, hot exchange of words. The various camps have also addressed the press, made press statements attempting to absolve itself or blame the other for the violence. In his last press conference in Lokoja, the state capital, Director, Media and Publicity/Spokesman of the APC Governorship Campaign Council, Kingsley Fanwo urged security agencies to fish out those responsible for the killing of the female supporter of the party in Kotonkarfe Local Government Area. He alleged that the supporter was killed by suspected SDP thugs. He claimed that the APC candidate, Usman Ododo, had remained uncompromisingly and resolute on issues-based campaign, devoid of violence, ethnocentric narratives or divisive tendencies. He also expressed confidence that the people of Igala land would “rather go with responsible candidates.” Fanwo boasted that the SDP candidate would be defeated at the poll.
He said the Campaign Council DG, Prince Shaibu Abubakar Audu, had already made clear, his commitment to executing a campaign that would usher in the Ododo era of consolidation and continuity. “No amount of ethnic parroting can distract the politically sagacious Minister of Steel Development, HM Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu, from the historic task ahead. His late father, Prince Abubakar Audu, was committed to a united, prosperous and peaceful Kogi State. The Director General is only following his footsteps,” he said.
But, the SDP team dismissed the allegations leveled against it by the APC campaign council, as a tissue of lies. The Director General New Media Muri Sam Ajaka Campaign Council, Mr. Isaiah Davies Ijele on his part, also called on security institutions of the state to remain neutral in the service of Kogi people and Nigerians. He said security personnel must resist the urge to be induced into playing politics and siding with oppressors. He also called on security agencies to investigate the incident in Koton Karfe and hold those behind it accountable. “Pictorial evidence and video clips of the unprovoked attack of the SDP and her supporters are on the internet for people to deduce from while waiting for a comprehensive police report. Alhaji Murtala Yakubu Ajaka and all his supporters are law abiding, steadfast, and respecters of the laid down principles of democracy and the Electoral Act unlike the APC, her supporters and the candidate they are finding difficult to push down the throat of Kogi people.
“The campaign of the SDP has been and will continue to be issue-based, devoid of any ethnic colouration. Our campaign is anchored on the promises of saving Kogi State from the hands of individuals milking her resources dry, impoverishing the populace, ethnically dividing the state, percentage salaries payment, rebuilding the collapsed infrastructures of the state, creating a peaceful environment where businesses and unity will thrive and putting Kogi on the path of prosperity.”
With both parties saying they are waiting on the police’s investigation, the command Public Relations Officer, William Ayah, in a statement, issued stated that the state commissioner of police, Bethrand Onuoha while sympathizing with all victims of political violence in the State, condemned, in strong terms, some politicians whose stock-in-trade is violence and who have taken it upon themselves to cause mayhem and heat up the State through their unguarded utterances and unregulated activities. He further directed the deputy Commissioner of Police, Criminal Investigation Department, (SCID) to commence a thorough, diligent and holistic investigation of all acts of political violence, accusations and counter-accusations on all the political parties and actors with a view to bringing all offenders to book.
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